Affliction warlock compendum and some number Crunching

So the last month since cata has been going in one straight direction - getting my warlock ready for raiding. Meaning running heroics, grinding rep and now finally getting to some reforging and stat balancing.

This post is a small compendum of affliction warlocking based and centered around my own warlock.

Also i would like to remember the wonderful people of EJ for putting in the time and effort to evolve an educated discussion about BIS specs and DPS benefits.
Also this thread is worth checking out: http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t110222-simulationcraft_warlocks_cataclysm_edition/

Before going into the warlock stuff tho, a small general tip about reforging:
Once you look at some peoples characters on Armory - you will sometimes notice that people have reforged let's say crit -> hit and then hit -> haste. And you will be thinking - why on earth would the take the "long way round"?
This is due to the fact that when you already have a stat on a piece of gear you cannot reforge the 2nd reforgable stat on that piece of gear into the 1st one.
As an example:
If you want to reforge crit to haste have an item with "+200crit and +200haste" and a second item with "+200 mastery and +200hit" - then you can just.

Reforge 200 crit on the 1st item to 120crit and 80 haste
Reforge 200hit to 200 haste on the 2nd item.
By doing this you have effectively reforged 200 crit to 200 haste. By using the help of a 2nd item. And while keeping your hit value the same (this is the main stat imo to use for such conversions at hit cap).


Some general affliction warlocking notes:
The rotation i personally try to use while still running heroics and which seems to put out quite decent dps (11-15k on heroic bosses - depending on group buffs).

While running in to initial position:
1. Curse of Elements
2. Soulburn -> Soulfire to get the 15% increased haste buff up
3. Corruption
4. Bane of Agony
Should reach designated nuking position:
5. haunt
6. Unstable affliction
7. Use shadowbolt as filler


Keep recasting soulfire every 15 seconds - to keep the buff up
Keep up your ISB buff
Try to hit Demon soul on cooldown.
Only use Fel-flame when moving and there are no other instant cast dots to refresh.

About which pet to use.
Using succubus seems to be the better choise for personal dps with the glyph of Lash of Pain.
However as a personal preference it seems better to use Felhunter - due to it's interrupt ability which seems to come in handy in a lot of situations in heroics these days. And the Felhunter mana regen / int buff is also nice.

Stat weights to aim for as an affliction warlock (based on simcraft):

1. INT
2. Spell Power
3. Haste
4. Hit
5. Mastery
6. Crit

When gemming - try to use a gem with INT on it in every socket as it's the highest stat value.
Worth noting that - as you can reforge Hit,crit,haste and mastery then you should be aiming to reforge for haste whenever possible.
For real world encounters being hit capped should still be higher priority than getting a bunch of haste due to missing on some spells tends to overcomplicate your rotation.

General tips:
Dark intent is best used on a restoration druid or a shadowpriest - ensuring that the 9% increased dot damage buff remains active almost 100% of the time.
Don't be a recount whore - use felhunter if noone else is giving a mana regen buff (no Blessing of Might for instance).

Simcraft stuff about my own character below:
Some notes before displaying any actual simcraft results:

1. Some BiS enchants are currently unattainable due to the insane cost to actual stat increase value balance.
2. Some trinkets that are shown here - are still quite hard to get my hands on. I have been quite lucky and got the Gale of Shadows - imo the BIS pre-raid trinket from a heroic for an affliction warlock due to the high amount of haste + the 340SP buff.
Full compendum of caster trinkets has been calculated here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnfJbiAHLcYgdDQ3ZHRuZS0xS052T0ktZk1XaUh6M1E&hl=en&authkey=CIXDjcsD

Down to business:

Imported character:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/alonsus/falc/advanced

Spec:
Affliction spec using shadowbolt as filler: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#IrGr0hsGcdZIMb
glyphs -> bane_of_agony/haunt/corruption/soul_swap/shadow_bolt/fear/unending_breath/eye_of_kilrogg/drain_soul

Rotation used for simcraft:
actions=flask,type=draconic_mind
actions+=/food,type=seafood_magnifique_feast
actions+=/fel_armor
actions+=/summon_felhunter
actions+=/dark_intent
actions+=/snapshot_stats
actions+=/volcanic_potion,if=buff.bloodlust.react|!in_combat
actions+=/demon_soul
actions+=/haunt
actions+=/soulburn,if=buff.bloodlust.down
actions+=/soul_fire,if=buff.improved_soul_fire.cooldown_remains<(cast_time+travel_time)&buff.bloodlust.down&!in_flight
actions+=/bane_of_agony,if=target.time_to_die>=20&!ticking&miss_react
actions+=/corruption,if=(!ticking|dot.corruption.remains<tick_time)&miss_react
actions+=/unstable_affliction,if=(!ticking|dot.unstable_affliction.remains<(cast_time+tick_time))&target.time_to_die>=5&miss_react
actions+=/summon_infernal
actions+=/drain_soul,interrupt=1,if=target.health_pct<=25
actions+=/life_tap,mana_percentage<=35
actions+=/shadow_bolt
actions+=/life_tap

Results:
Full Results set can be viewed here: http://falc.dev.delfi.ee/simcraft/results-20101231.html

Some of the more interesting results:
Damage sources and Scale factors (nice google pie charts from simcraft):





So the interesting bit about these is that:
1. About 50% of the damage seems to be still coming from dots (46%ish).
2. The hit scale factors are a lot lower than int and SP even when not capped. However comparing to other priorities and the complication of the affliction rotation seems that it is still better to get hit capped to make things easier on yourself and not risk loosing any crucial spell like haunt missing.

Lets do Archeology

So Dec 7th. After a long day at work which was even cataclysmically slow you might say i get home.
Time to load up the game and do some archeology.

What it's all about.
Flying around in the old world discovering places.. digging .. then discovering the same places again.

How it works.
1. Go train archeology in SW keep library from Harrison Jones
2. Open your map for Eastern Kingdoms and find a "spade icon" on the map.
3. Fly to said spade icon location - when you get to the correct area it is marked with a red circle on your area map as well
4. Dig inside the circle - a telescope will spawn and a pointy flashy light will be next to it. The larger end will point you the direction of the item you need to find. The pointy flashy light will say how far the object is. Red - for very far, yellow for medium and green blinky light for close.
5. Navigate to the item using digging and just following in the direction the telescope shows until it is in the green and then just dig up the artifact
6. Do this 3 times - sometimes 4 for 1 single dig site.
7. from skill 1-100 archeology only dig for artifacts. (You need to train up to journeyman between levels 50-75).

8. At skill 100. Open up your archeology Tab. Click on a topic (fossil, dwarf, troll or nightelf) and see how many items you can solve. When solving items be sure to notice a hexagon at the bottom of some items. As you should have earned a bunch of dawrf, or troll or nightelf relics - by clicking on that hexacon you can use one of those special relics to reduce the amount of items required to make that discovery. Be sure to make good use of that.

And that's pretty much it.

Personal impressions.
My first impressions were good - lots of travelling and lots todo. But after about 4-5 hours of solid grinding archeology feels closest to fishing. Which is also just a very long grind doing the same thing over and over.
At least the items you craft with it are interesting. I also managed to craft my 1st rare artefact. A rare pet: http://warcraftpets.com/wow.pets/reptiles/raptors/fossilized_hatchling.asp
However as with fishing - grinding it for a whole evening is not the best activity unless you've got a good TV series or something to watch in the foreground and leave the archeology and digging into the background.

Also note worthy - i managed to gain 90% of the experience required for lvl 81 about 1.4Mil just from gathering archeology items - each of the gathered nodes gives about 5500xp.

Also noteworthy - apparently the higher you get your skil level the more fragments you get from digging up a single artifact. About lvl 100 it was 3. Same at lvl 200 at the moment.

PS! Some congratulations are in order.
Gratz to Primetime for being first guildie to lvl 85.
Gratz to my always lovely Estele for reaching lvl 85 just yesterday.
Gratz to Mortyhunter for being realm 1st lvl 85.

Cataclysm

So been a week and a lot has happened and not a lot has been written ;)

Cataclysm launch (Dec 6th)
It is the evening of the 6th of December.
Me and Estele set out to the store and drive there. It is snowing heavily and the roads are very slippery but we get there. Quite a few people about 40-50 waiting at the store. Not close to the numbers at Wrath launch. Ah well i blame digital download
At exactly 00.00 Local time the store is opened and we get our purchase and are home by 00.15.
We install the game and are done about 00.47 local.

Cool 12 minutes to Cata i think.

So time to log in - take Falc to Harrison Jones the archeology trainer and gloat a bit in guild about already having the Cata package and already having it installed.

Tick Tock.. Tick Tock..

00.01 Server time (01.01 local).. We try to log in aaaaand... "Connecting" ... "you have been disconnected from the server". Time to try again and again. Appears blizzard login servers are down. 
00.05 ST (01.05 local) : Noticed some guildies spamming the shoutbox. Aah lovely to see other people panicking about the lack of ability to log on to the game.
00.20 Time to log on vent and hear DRG and Duv go crazy about lack of logon opportunities and their not so nice advantage of obtaining a digital release.
00.45 ST (01.45 local). After spending some time on vent hearing DRG and Duv nerdrage about cata launch fail it was time for bed :)

Can't really say i didn't see this coming. But still an eventful evening and quite fun with some guildies packed in.

Adventures of Fluffykitten

With Azeroth now lying in ruins after Deathwings return. Might i add - he looked really pissed. No 80 content is out - so what to do oh what to do. Of course start an alt. Here he is a newly born Paladin named fluffykitten. Meow!


He was a quiet lad. Starting his life near Stormwind in a small abbey - which for some reason seems to be constantly under siege from wolves, sheesh, bloody menace. One day a change happened in the Abbey.

Day 1:
On that faithful morning as he was again trying to farm some pumpkins on the fields the orcs broke through via a tunnel from the blackrock mountain and he ran for his life back to the abbey to be protected by the guards. But oh how lovely - just then he saw that the mailman had come and with a package just for him. What was in the package you ask? Oh some lovely armor and a fabulous 2 handed sword sent by his great uncle and high warlock of the alliance. That is when he decided! No more - my days of plowing the fields and praying the the gods at night are over. For i will now take up my arms against these wolves and orcs and become a great hero of the alliance. After vanquishing the hordes of orcs and goblin assassins and putting out the fires that now burned on the fields - the day was finally done and our hero set on his way to Goldshire and to the great wide world behind the gates of the Abbey.

Day 2:
Goldshire and all it's troubles. Why oh why do they need so many candles - and why oh why do the kobolds feel so close the the candles they make. That has never been correctly documented, but as our hero was no scientist he solved the problems the only way he knew how, by hacking and slashing trough the horde of kobolds and getting their precious candles for a small fee to a merchant in Goldshire. Ah good old capitalism at work.

In that afternoon he was asked to go check out troubles around some old guardpost at the west side of Elwynn forest. There he was tasked with a great task of killing the most feared creature in these woods - then leader of gnolls Hogger. But oh the drudgery when he found out that just as he was about to hit the final blow the stormwind guards intercepted him and took Hogger to the Stockades for questioning. I mean putting a bloodthirsty beast into a dungeon that is renown for it's lack of security measures - that can end well - right?

Day 3: 
Westfall. As our hero was just entering Westfall he was welcomed with a truly gruesome sight of Old Blanchy lying dead on his path. And a Lieutenant Horatio Lane investigating and throwing witty one liners such as "Looks like this time they really put the cart ... in front of the horse!". As the murder mystery unraveled Fluffykitten was quickly deputized and put in charge of figuring out what had happened. Needless to say everything worked out very well in the end with Westfall being burnt to the ground by Vanessa VanCleef the daughter of the old leader of the Defias Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood generally restored in westfall. All in a days work right? Right?!?

Ah Well you win some and you loose some.

Day 4:
On the 4th day of travels our hero decided it was a good time to quickly visit lakeshire and Duskwood to gather some materials for his Blacksmithing. But was quickly drawn to the events in Darkshire when Stalvan Mistmantles long lost brother was hot on the trail of his brothers legacy. And to say the least a lot of mayhem pursued. Main thing aside our hero did manage to gather some precious ore and did manage to craft himself a good sturdy pair of boots and gloves for his travels. So a good day.

But that is all the time we have for you today. So sweet dreams children and have a good night.

It's over 9000!

Yes Indeed. Falc aquired the Feat of Strength for over 9000 achievement points over the weekend after Estele my lovely girlfriend had the sense to drag me along to an ulduar10 run for some random achievements. This racked me up to about 8960 achievements points. And then an evening of PvP later the FoS popped up.

Also i think i must give Estele a big "Thank you" for actually helping me complete a lot of the achivements for this. As she really does help me through a lot of the rep grinds and gathering things. Not to mention being our GM and organizer for most guild business. So again "Thank you".

We also went ahead and did some more Ulduar just yesterday. Running with The Elysian Templars - who we're kind enough to organize the run and we finally managed to get a 25 man Algalon kill as well.

So for me at least only 1 thing remains to be completed in this expansion. The blasted "Glory of The Hero" dungeon achivements set. Of which only "Less Rabi" still remains.

Naxx25 madness and the joys of pugging.

Last night i was in the middle of some PvP when our Warrior MT called out for people in guild to PuG Naxx25.

When Zoning in i discovered that we had a group of about 16 people, 4 of which were guildies. Now 16 people is more than enough to kill Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad on 25 man with a competent group. But as i soon found out this it was not.

Oh the glorious wipes on Sapphiron when our healers managed to get caught by the shockwave during the air phase or the even more enjoyable defeats on Kel'Thuzad where people were killed by "Purple Swirly Things" on the ground or when our whole melee group managed to get turned into one big iceblock. We did manage to get them both down in the end - and needless to say - had a great laugh about the silly mistakes people were making. So all-in-all a great Pug.

So this brings me to the topic of why i love pugging raids:
1) You have no responsibility to anyone except for yourself.
No matter how bad you play you know that people in the PuG really weren't expecting any better so meh. Which also means that if you play really well you can watch other people fail on simple things and laugh out loud behind your computer.
Furthermore if you feel that you have no responsibility you can also relax better from the troubles of the world.
2) You can leave at any time.
In an average PuG - when the atmosphere gets really bad or when you can see that the Pug just isn't progressing anywhere you can just make a nice excuse and just leave. No penalty other than maybe a small hit to your realm reputation, if you have any that is.
3) You have a chance to check out other players and guilds on the realm and get a feel of the other people that play on your realm.
4) Finally - The big one! You can  really feel good about your guild raids - and just how much better things are there. This thought primarily just makes me smile :)

The Plan.

Hi and Welcome to Bane of Agony - the initial post.

For a while now i have been writing comments onto various sites about the happenings in WoW and this blog should be sort of a place or wall where these ideas and thoughts could all come together.


First off A little history is in order.
My main character and alter ego Falc the warlock has been around for ages. More specifically since i first saw the World of Warcraft episode on South Park (A couple of months before Burning Crusade was launched). For about a year i was a casual player mainly running having fun questing. In mid burning Crusade i managed to get into a raiding guild and get a feel of what it is like to tackle the PvE raid content in WoW and have been a semi-hardcore raider ever since.


What is Happening now?
The current plan for Falc the lovable affliction lock is to get the "it's over 9000!" Feat of strength. I am currently at 8860 Achievement points and counting - so not a large way to go. The only problem ahead seems to be that the achievements that are still left aren't the easiest ones to tackle. A lot of them being PvP ones + some reputation grinds. + 1 darn "Less Rabi" to complete in Glory of the Hero dungeon achievements set.

Other plans include to enjoy the elemental invasion which is currently happening in Azeroth, also to perhaps have some end of expansion fun in some of the older raids such as Ulduar.